Kinect2Scratch: Music, Movement and Fun

Kinect2Scratch is a really amazing free program developed by Stephen Howell, a computer science lecturer from Ireland. 

Scratch is a really popular programming language that makes it easy to create and share your own games, music, art and more. It is free and was developed by the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab. 

Stephen has made it possible to have Scratch and Kinect work together. You can download it from here https://scratch.saorog.com/ . At the moment we have only been using the sample games that Stephen has made himself. These are also available to download from Stephen's website. We have used the Music Generator and The Skeleton and I have to say that the children love it.

It does however need a fast laptop. When I first downloaded it onto a class laptop there was a time lag between my movement and what was happening on screen. I then downloaded it onto a faster laptop and it worked perfectly. Originally I thought it wouldn't work with Somantics on the same laptop but we have figured out a way to switch between the two programmes with a minimum of fuss. If you are interested on how to do this have a look at this 'how to' video which we made which should help.